WWE News: Evolve to go on a hiatus, no plans on running events going forward (w/Radican’s Analysis)

PWTorch obtained a private Facebook message board post today from a source from Evolve VP of talent relations, creative, and marketing Gabe Sapolsky to the Evolve roster.

In the post directed to the Evolve roster, Sapolsky told the group that he was going to eliminate the private facebook group because there are no plans for Evolve to run any events going forward. PWTorch confirmed the validity of the screen shot from members of WWN management and the Evolve roster.

Evolve and WWE have had a working relationship for several years. NXT wrestlers have regularly done stints in Evolve to gain experience. For example, The Street Profits, the current WWE Tag Team Champions, were Evolve Tag Team Champions at one point before heading to NXT TV and eventually the main roster.

Last year, an Evolve event was featured on the WWE Network. There have been many rumors about WWE buying out Evolve and Evolve parent company WWN ceasing operations in recent weeks, but sources tell PWTorch that those rumors are not true.

According to sources WWN will continue to operate, but Evolve will be going on a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sapolsky told the roster in his Facebook post that this is just a fork in the road and encouraged talent to stay in touch.

Radican’s Analysis: It’s not a surprise that Evolve is going to take a break from running shows for the foreseeable future due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There had been a lot of rumors going around that Evolve was going to be bought out by WWE and Evolve’s parent company WWN would be ceasing operations in recent weeks, but for now it seems like the company will go on a hiatus until it can safely run shows again. 

One big hook for Evolve shows was NXT meet and greets and the participation of NXT roster members in Evolve angles and matches. That is obviously off the table right now for the foreseeable future. My guess is that Evolve won’t return anytime soon and if they did return, it will be because WWE feels it is safe to send talent to work on shows.

Evolve has been down and out before and come back. It wouldn’t surprise me if WWE wants to leverage their working relationship with Evolve again in the future to help develop talent that the company would make a return.